I get a lot of stuff done, as you have probably noticed. A while ago, a kind soul took a few of my blog posts on time management and my approach to getting stuff done and put them together into a pdf. I was touched, and enjoyed the idea of it, but didn’t do anything much about it until last week when I took those articles, and a few more, and formatted them together into a nice little ebook mostly because, as a productive person with good systems in place, I had time on my hands.

“This short book brings together half a dozen of Guy’s articles on productivity, time management, and generally getting shit done. It is short (about 12,000 words) because if you are pressed for time, do you really want a great big doorstop of a book to get through before getting on with your life?

NOTE: you can read all of these articles for free on his blog. But do you have the time to sift through all of the sword-fighting and other stuff on there to find these?”

I hope you find this useful! Though as you’re right here on the blog, you could probably go looking for the articles yourself.

Of course, I could provide a list of links to them, but that would take me time, and save you a pitiful £1.99, so I’m not going to. See how it works? One of the most important things when it comes to time management is to value your own time.

If you are time rich and cash poor, go looking. If you are cash rich and time poor, buy the book. It works either way.

Are there any other topics you’d like my thoughts on? Guy on XYZ? Let me know in the comments…

My shoulders ache. My legs ache. Everything aches. It’s awesome. It’s the signal that I’ve been outside my comfort zone doing something different. Last weekend I attended a beginners’ Parkour seminar combined with a Wim Hof method seminar, at the extraordinary Chainstore Gym run by Parkour Generations in London. What a place that is. I wanted to stay and play all day. And I did!

This all came about because I met Dan Edwardes at the Hero Round Table event I attended last year; the one where I ended up doing burpees with Joe de Sena. Parkour is one of those ‘that looks amazing but way way too dangerous’ activities, and as always with such things, I stay away unless I find a teacher whose approach suits me. Such as Dan. Chatting safety with Dan is like looking in a mirror. The things that look dangerous usually aren’t, it’s all about preparation, and you can always leave the spectacular and risky stuff out. That’s right folks; you don’t have to walk along the parapet of a skyscraper and leap to the next building. You can start on the floor. It’s hard to fall badly when you’re already on the ground.

The seminar was organised as a gentle intro to Parkour, followed by a gentle intro to the Wim Hof breathing (taught by Martin Petrus), followed by a short lecture on the physiology of the method, followed by a more advanced Parkour class, and then back to Martin for some breathing and the immersion in icy water. I mean water that’s full of ice-cubes, so the temperature is close to zero. This is not a cold shower.

My regular readers of this blog (and of my book The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts) will know that I’ve been doing the Wim Hof Method and cold exposure for a while, but even so it was very interesting to see Martin’s take on it. He’s a qualified WHM instructor, and a very good teacher, and his approach is much softer than daredevil Wim’s. It has given me a lot of ideas for furthering my own practice, and also someone to ask if I get stuck with something.

Dan’s approach to teaching Parkour is exactly like mine for teaching swordsmanship. Minimal technical instruction, maximum practical experience, focus on one thing, and mindful practice. He even cited one of my favourite books on coaching, The Inner Game of Tennis. I was the only complete beginner in the class; many of the 9 other students had been training for years, and oh my it showed. Another great feature: the absolute best training situation is when everyone around you is more experienced than you are. It’s uncomfortable, of course, because you can feel like you’re holding the class back, or getting in people’s way, but that’s also a useful exercise in itself.

The warm-up was focused on what we were going to do (and I have a few nifty squat variations to add to my regular training and torture my students), and the most Parkour-ey thing we did was walking along scaffolding beams, set about a foot or 18 inches off the ground, and jumping from a low box onto a low wall (there were four different set-ups, from very low and close, to really quite high and far away. I managed to do the first two, but stayed away from the others. I also got a proper Parkour experience: on my first jump, I stalled: my subconscious took over completely and I had this weird experience of my body not doing what I was telling it, and I stopped dead on the edge of the jump. This was really useful, because so much of the process is about doing the things you find scary. I was prepared for the possibility of balking on the second attempt, and so headed it off, and jumped with no problem. But it was terrifying; I was convinced I’d end up splatting my face into the wall. This is the best kind of practice (and one I’ve experienced before on the trapeze). Half a dozen jumps later and it was no issue, and I moved up to the next stage.

The second round of Parkour started with us playing on their indoor set-up, with all sorts of scaffolding rigs for leaping about on like a particularly extraverted ninja (or staggering about like a drunken hippo if you’re me). Their play area changes regularly, so it’s not set up exactly like in this video from their youtube channel, but you can get the general idea:

I don’t like experiencing seminars from behind a phone, so I left mine in my bag and took no photos for you, sorry. But the whole event was videoed, and Parkour Generations will be publishing the video soon. Let’s hope they don’t show the bits where I could be mistaken for that hippo.

The Wim Hof breathing was a little different to how I usually do it. For a start, we were lying down, and really focussing on breathing deeply in, and passively exhaling, and it lead to a pretty intense experience which I don’t quite want to describe yet. Good stuff, but it felt kind of private.

The final experience was the ice bath. We poured bags of ice cubes into a half-full immersion pool, and left it for a short while (which brings the temperature of the water down) while we prepared with three more rounds of the breathing. We entered the pool in pairs, and stayed in for two minutes under Martin’s close attention. I think this was the part that showed Martin’s depth as a teacher; he was extraordinarily good at talking us gently through the hard parts. Ice baths hurt. Most of us went in twice though, so it’s not just me that’s mad. One of the many odd things about the experience was I got these strange blue marks on my knees and left shin, which went away when I warmed up again. I think they are bruises under the skin, and as the blood leaves the skin becomes translucent, showing the damage underneath. The science behind the benefits of this kind of cold exposure is pretty solid, but it is not for the faint hearted! I’ve only done properly icy water immersion after a sauna before, which is very different (not least because you can get straight back into the sauna if you want to).

All in all, this was a great day of dangerous things approached safely, good training, interesting experiences, and nice people. The real measure of a training space is the atmosphere, I think. The acid test is would I be happy sending my kids there? And I absolutely would. I hope to be back soon whether they want to come with me or not!

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As you may know I’ve been working on a second edition of Veni Vadi Vici for several years, as part of my PhD work. I have completely rewritten the book, so much so that it has been re-titled as The Art of Sword Fighting in Earnest.

It is now available to buy in glorious full-colour hardback, which includes a facsimile of the manuscript, a new introduction, and a completely updated translation.

I made the translation available for free on gumroad; if you missed it, it’s here.

You can order the hardback from any bookshop, or on Amazon. It’s expensive though ($65) because of the whole full-colour hardback thing.

I am working on a black-and-white paperback version which will be about a third the price, and won’t have the facsimile built in. Expect that to be out in a few months.

If you have already bought Veni Vadi Vici, then I will be very happy to email you a link to download the 180mb colour pdf file of the new book. I think it’s only fair, as the new book was necessary to correct the errors in the first one. You shouldn’t have to pay extra to get the corrected text. Just send me an email and I’ll send you a download link for the print file. If you have friends that have Veni Vadi Vici please let them know that they can get the new book in pdf for free.

My security-minded friends will be having conniptions at the complete lack of suspiciousness in this approach. Yes, you could email me and lie about having bought Veni Vadi Vici, and I would still send you the pdf. Why? Because:

a) I trust my readers

b) if you need the book that badly and are so hard up you can’t buy it and are willing to lie to me to get it, then firstly, you should probably read my book on ethics, but secondly I’d rather you had the book than stewed in horrid ignorance

c) the cost in thought, time, and suspicious-mindedness necessary to create some kind of checking system is not worth the possibility that I might be doing myself out of a few book sales

d) I think it’s a good book. People who get the free pdf are more likely to go and buy the book in hardcopy.

At the end of the day, my fans won’t cheat me. What my non-fans do doesn’t matter.

UPDATE: This book hit #1 on Amazon… in the category “Medieval Literary Criticism”. So what? So it’s a really good idea to know what categories to put your book into. It is now, despite having sold perhaps 10 copies, forever and for all time a “Bestseller”.

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I’m just back from a teaching trip to Seattle, and not too jet-lagged… which is good because I’m re-packing my bag for a trip to the Isle of Wight tomorrow. I’ll be spending the weekend walking round in enormous circles: two full circumnavigations of the island, totalling about 106km. Why, you may ask?

Well to start with, just to do something completely different. I don’t normally do any kind of monster endurance events. And while I was at it, I thought I’d raise some money for a good cause. What could be more important than educating children? It’s the silver bullet that solves so many problems. The charity I’m supporting is Room to Read, and you can find my fundraising page here.

Every little helps, and if you think this is a good idea, please also share the link with your friends.

With this book you can train your mind and body to become an expert in historical martial arts. It includes the seven principles of mastery, considers the ethics of martial arts, and goes into detail about the process of recreating historical martial arts from written sources.

On the practical side, I explain how to develop your skills, and lay out the path for students to become teachers, covering the basics of safe training, looking after your body, and even starting your own training group and teaching basic classes.

Please note, this is not a training manual for a specific style; it lays the groundwork for becoming expert in any style.

Roland Warzecha of DIMICATOR had this to say about it:

This is a comprehensive guide to the rewarding pursuit of historical martial arts, from choosing a source, study and research of historical manuals to developing and conducting a training program that serves your purpose best. Benefit from the experience of one of the most accomplished experts in the field. A must-read for beginners and advanced practitioners alike.

This book has read and edited by over a hundred test-readers, who have made suggestions and corrections, to make the book as useful as possible. So far, the reviews are good:

As a long time solo student of Historical Martial Arts, The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts and Guy’s other works have encouraged me to take my training to the next level. The advice in this book has helped me start a small club and provided well grounded advice for developing classes and instruction based on the author’s experience. Guy’s book also has plenty of advice which has helped me better plan out my personal training and to help me make better use of the original sources. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in HMA, particularly those in need of advice for getting started with planning a training program.
-Cameron Atkinson, Canberra.

It is now available on all platforms, in hardback and ebook formats. The paperback will follow later in the year.

Buy the book from any of these retailers, or you can order it from your local bookshop

There is a heady pleasure only authors know: the moment when the book you’ve been sweating blood over for the last many months or years, is finally done.

Here’s the moment captured on video for you: transferring the folder from “Writing” to “PUBLISHED!” (this is probably the least exciting video you will ever see. Unless you’re a writer. Then it might give you shivers):

This is not quite the most edited book I’ve ever written (that would be the forthcoming The Art of Swordfighting in Earnest, my re-working of Veni Vadi Vici), but it’s been through a hundred beta readers in January last year, and another hundred or so since then. Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as I can make it without releasing it into the community to see what you make of it? Yes.

Here’s what one reader had to say:

As a long time solo student of Historical Martial Arts, The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts and Guy’s other works have encouraged me to take my training to the next level. The advice in this book has helped me start a small club and provided well grounded advice for developing classes and instruction based on the author’s experience. Guy’s book also has plenty of advice which has helped me better plan out my personal training and to help me make better use of the original sources. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in HMA, particularly those in need of advice for getting started with planning a training program.
-Cameron Atkinson, Canberra.

It’s available from Gumroad now! Click on the cover…

The hardback will be available from Amazon (USA, UK, and everywhere else) and any other bookseller you care to name on April 6th. It will also be available from Kobo and iBooks then.

I plan to release the paperback later in the year…

Legendary sword and buckler instructor Roland Warzecha of DIMICATOR describes this book as:

A comprehensive guide to the rewarding pursuit of historical martial arts, from choosing a source, study and research of historical manuals to developing and conducting a training program that serves your purpose best. Benefit from the experience of one of the most accomplished experts in the field. A must-read for beginners and advanced practitioners alike.

Want to try it? You can get a free 70 page sample by signing up to my mailing list below.